March 2: Why 70?

Why are Supreme Court justices forced to retire at the age of 70, when they are at the height of their judicial abilities?

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Why 70?Sir, – Regarding “Beinisch retires after 5 years as Supreme Court
president” (February 29), why are Supreme Court justices forced to retire at the
age of 70, when they are at the height of their judicial abilities, with years
of rich experience and insights from sitting on the bench? In the US, justices
on the top court are appointed for life to utilize the knowledge and maturity
they have acquired over the years.

Some of the greatest judicial
decisions have been handed down by justices over 70.

Sir, – How long will it take for someone to note the double standard
involved in “understanding” Arab Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran’s refusal
to sing Hatikva during a state ceremony at the President’s Residence, while not
being able to understand religious soldiers who request being exempted from army
ceremonies and programs where women sing? Let me be the first.

AVIGDOR
BONCHEK Jerusalem

Waste of space

Sir, – Arieh O’Sullivan should be ashamed of
himself for being sworn in to the Sons of Confederate Veterans (“An Israeli
‘redneck’ gets his confederacy stripes,” February 29).

What did the
Confederate army fight to protect? Man’s inhumanity to man.

Southern
slave owners treated human beings as animals (actually worse, because animals
were not beaten by their owners the way slaves were).

Should the Post
have written an article about this? I, for one, think not.

NACHUM
CHERNOFSKY Bnei Brak

Suggested changesSir, – Arye Carmon rightly points out
that we should be extremely careful in making changes to our electoral system.
However, he does not put forward any suggestions for change.

I would like
to suggest: 1. Raise the election threshold to 5 percent or even 10%. This will
eliminate one-issue parties.

2. Reduce the number of ministers to no more
than that in the United States.

A country of seven million has no need
for more national departments than does a country of over 300 million. This will
save millions of shekels and let the smaller parties know they cannot blackmail
a prime minister or potential prime minister to create jobs for them.

3.
The order of MK candidates on each list should be chosen completely by party
members, voting for 20 candidates by name. The one with the highest number of
votes is the candidate for prime minister.

DAVID FEIGENBAUMNetanya

That’s what it isSir, – I was struck by the video describing the recent brutal
stoning attack on several cars on the Gush Etzion-Hebron road.

Two years
ago my son was involved in a similar incident. Thank God, he and his passengers
were unharmed, though the stone that hit our car left a gaping hole in the
roof.

He notified the proper authorities and filed a police report, but
we never found out whether the matter was investigated.

To our knowledge
the perpetrators were never found. We have no reason to believe the police ever
looked.

Rocks are lethal weapons, yet incidents of rock-throwing at cars
are not taken seriously by the authorities until the worst happens. I call on
the Israeli security forces to treat all incidents of stone-hurling at moving
vehicles with the same seriousness they do a case of attempted murder, because
that’s what it is.

ARI SOLOMONT Hashmonaim

CORRECTION: One of the
laureates of this year’s Dan David Prize is Robert Conquest, and not George
Conquest, as was incorrectly reported in “Dan David Foundation names 2012 prize
laureates” (March 1). The Post regrets the error.

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